Police car

A Warm Springs man died after he was hit by a car along U.S. Highway 97 near Redmond early Tuesday morning.

Corey Lee Smith, 52, died at the scene of the crash at the highway’s intersection with NW Maple Avenue, Oregon State Police said in a press release.

A witness called 911 around 12:19 a.m. to report a person sitting in the median in an unlit area of the highway near an overpass. Then, police responded to a report that a person had been hit by a car in this area, OSP said.

Police said Smith was in the right northbound lane of the highway when he was hit by a Ford F-150.

The driver, Brandon Wayne Boland, 48, of Redmond, and an unnamed passenger were not injured.

The crash prompted authorities to close the northbound lanes of the highway for about three hours.

Smith is the third person to be killed along the highway in the Redmond area since Saturday.

Two people died in a car crash along Highway 97 near Redmond on Saturday evening. That crash occurred about 8 miles from the site of the latest crash, according to Kacey Davey, a public information officer with the Oregon Department of Transportation. 

Police said one person drove a van onto the shoulder of the highway Saturday, lost control, crossed the median and then crashed into a car heading the opposite direction, killing a passenger. The driver of the van also died.

Shortly afterward, two more people crashed at the scene of the crash, including one who slammed into an Oregon Department of Transportation vehicle while fleeing from a hit-and-run just moments before.

Each of the drivers in the  later crashes was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of intoxicants.